Basics

Polish Pronounciation can be really tough especially if you don't pronounce rolling "rrrr" or are not used to lots of consonants next to each other. For some expats, Polish sounds as if people were arguing all the time, some others cannot believe that one can speak so quick.

Some basic vocabulary:

Good morning/Good Day – Dzien dobry

Goodbye – Do widzenia, pa (colloquial), czesc

Thank you – Dziekuje

Excuse me/Sorry – Przepraszam

Here you go – Prosze

I don’t speak Polish – Nie mowie po polsku

I don’t understand – Nie rozumiem

Getting around:

Street - Ulica (abr. ul.)

Avenue - Aleja (abr. al.)

Square - Plac

Restaurants/Bars:

Take Away - Na wynos

Main Course - Danie glowne

Soups - Zupy

Starters - Przystawki

Desserts - Desery

Sandwiches - Kanapki

Shopping list (you can dowload printable file with even more useful words in the pdf attachment below):

poultry - drób milk - mleko

chicken - kurczak cream - smietana

turkey - indyk flour - maka

meat - mieso sugar - cukier

beef - wolowina noodles - makaron

pork - wieprzowina rice - ryz

veal - cielecina salt - sól

Hiccups

Polish language might seem completely incomprehensible, even for those foreigners who studied it for ages. It is not only because of many exceptions, but also as many young Poles create new words constantly and use metaphors. Neologism is very common practice in Poland! Let’s take one example:

Narazie = see you later

“Narazie” is already a colloquial, however more common is “nara” or even “narka”

“Trzymaj sie” = take care, will be shortened to “trzym sie”

Poles like to miniatures possibly everything. If you talk about a tinny-tiny chair, you will just take the noun and use diminutive, so: